Crazy in Love
by justsukiya
Summary: Who said that a relationship with Seifer Almasy was easy? Feel its joy & its headaches. A series of drabbles on “10 Petty Annoyances that erode even the best relationships.” SeiferOC
1. Chapter 1: It's Deliberate

_Crazy in Love_

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII or any of its characters. I simply own the characters that I created, Ceri.

A/N: Story takes place after the game, assuming that Seifer has been back at the garden permanently for some time now.  
Inspired by an article in _Psychology Today_ titled "You're Driving Me Crazy! – 10 Relationship Headaches & How to Fix them" in their March/April 2009 issue. This piece will revolve around the 10 annoyances that was mentioned.

Please be kind!

* * *

_1 – "It's Deliberate"_

It was one of those rare lazy Sunday afternoons where Seifer and Ceri could just sit on the couch and watch TV in her dorm. He had his arms wrapped around her waist and leaned back against the couch like she was doing to him. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and said, "I'm going to get a drink, want anything?"

"Umm," paused Ceri. "Coke would be nice. Thank you!" she called after him and heard his light laughter. Ceri looked at his retreating figure for a few more moments and turned back to the screen.

_Wait…_Her body froze. _What did he say he was getting?_ She quickly moved towards the kitchen and asked wearily, "Seifer, what did you say you were getting?"

"Soda," came the blunt reply.

Ceri stepped into the kitchen and saw that there were no cups on the counter. "Seifer, where is your…Seifer!" cried Ceri when she saw him in front of the refrigerator door.

"What?" he asked and stopped his arm that was holding an opened soda bottle in midair.

"No, Seifer! Don't drink!"

"Why? Is something wrong with it?" Seifer questioned and raised his eyebrows.

"No, but…Noo!!" Ceri said as she watched Seifer drink large gulps of soda straight out of the bottle, his lips fully touching its opening.

"What are you doing? Stop!" she tried to command and pulled at his arm.

"What?"

"Don't drink out of the bottle! How am I supposed to drink from it now?"

"Here," Seifer replied while handing her the Coke.

Ceri pushed the bottle away and groaned. "I told you that I wanted you to use a cup. This is dirty! And you don't finish the whole bottle either! I don't want your germs."

"You kiss me, don't you?" he asked and moved to put his arms around her.

"That's different!" she said, backing away from him. "You do this on purpose! You want to steal my sodas!"

"Peaches," Seifer started exasperatedly.

"No, no, no. You know that it bothers me, and I've told you why. I'm sure you don't do this to Rinoa or Quistis or something. I just don't see why…" Ceri continued to talk but more seemingly to herself rather than at Seifer. She started picking at her lips and felt around for dry skin to peel, a nervous habit she developed a few years back.

Seifer placed the soda on the table and approached her softly. "Now, Peachie, what did I say about touching your lips? It bugs me, and it's not good for you, remember?" He placed his hands on the counter behind her with his arms brushing against her sides, successfully trapping her with his body, and used his fingers to pry her little ones away from her lips.

"I know that…it's just hard," Ceri said weakly, slightly taken aback by their positions and his stare.

"Hmm…I better do something about that then, huh?" he hummed lowly and leaned in to take her lips with his.

It started as a soft kiss until she pressed harder back against him and wrapped her arms around his neck. As soon as she made a sound of satisfaction, he pulled back. A soft groan of protest quickly followed.

Seifer gave a small chuckle and placed alight kiss on her nose. "Now, do I get something like that to help me break my 'annoying' habits?"

"Maybe…" She smiled and trailed off as she pulled him back down for another kiss. He felt her growing smile and gave her a quick peck on her forehead.

"How 'bout I get you some apple juice? In a cup?" he asked her.

Ceri nodded her head and said, "Okay." She remained leaning against the counter as she waited for him.

"Here you go. I'm going to put on a movie," he told her quickly and left the kitchen with his soda after giving her another small kiss on the cheek.

She nodded again and kept her eyes on her cup of apple juice. _Something isn't right…_She moved the cup lightly, making the liquid inside swirl in little circles. _Is that…Oh Hyne. It is._ There were tiny food particles floating around in her apple juice!

"Arghh," Ceri let out an angry growl. "Seifer!!!"

All that was heard in her dorm was the sound of Seifer laughing hysterically at her frustration as a reply.

* * *

"_We take every irritant personally. When we don't get what we want, we interpret it as, 'You don't love me enough.' We think, 'If you really cared about me, you'd stop driving me crazy with all your irritating habits. Unfortunately, much behavior is mindless; we do many things without thinking."  
_– _Petty Annoyance #1 "It's Deliberate" (Psychology Today, March/April 2009)_


	2. Chapter 2: Feeling Unloved

_Chapter 2_

_Feeling Unloved_

* * *

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Why the fuck are you following me?"

"Well, if you'd stop_ walking away _from me, then maybe I _won't _be 'following' you!" shouted Ceri as she slammed Seifer's door shut behind her.

"I told you to get the fuck away from me," growled Seifer as he continued to walk further into the room.

"And I am still waiting for a freaking explanation!" Ceri yelled back and put her hands on her hip.

"I already said that I don't want to fucking see you anymore," he told her in a low voice, turning to face her again.

"And, I've already said that I ain't leaving until you tell me why!"

"Fuck this." He began taking loud angry strides towards the door.

Ceri quickly moved to put out her arms to block his exit.

"No, Seifer! You can't keep doing this shit!"

"What the fuck are you yelling for, woman!?"

"You_ just_ noticed!? Why the hell do you keep walking away from me?"

"I am not walking away from you," he gritted out.

"Then what do you call all of this?" questioned Ceri as she gestured at the distance between the two of them as well as the space between him and the door.

He can't just "bump" into her in the hallway, throw some stupid nonsense in her face, and expect her to back off without doing anything!Who the hell did he think he was?No one walked over Ceri Summers. She was going to get him to talk to her, even if it meant that she had to punch and gut him.

"Seifer, what's going on? Why aren't you talking to me?" She was met with silence.

"Seifer, what's wrong?" She tried reaching out for him, but he flinched and withdrew his arm from her proximity before she could even touch him.

"Why are you so annoying?"

"I'm not trying to be."

He scoffed at her words, "Well, you're clearly failing at it."

"Stop it, Seifer! Just stop and tell me what the hell is wrong with you today!"

Something seemed to have finally snapped inside Seifer. Perhaps it was because of her stupidity or her stubbornness in refusing to let him be, but whatever it was it, it had finally cracked his barrier.

"What's wrong!? You want to know what's wrong? _This_. All of _this_ is wrong. _We_ are wrong! I can't be with someone like you!"

"What – "

"Did you really thinkthat after all that shit with Ultimecia that I am _normal_? That I _can_ be normal? After all that _mind fucking_ and seeing all those people begging for their lives, and all I did was walking through only to kill them and then laugh at their dead bodies?"

He paused to glance at her reaction only to snap at her again. "Don't give me that look, Ceri. Don't be so fucking naïve. Do you really think that all that shit just leaves you once it's over? No! It fucking stays. It fucking stays…"

Seifer ran a hand through his hair and casted his gaze around the room and on the floor, anyway except on her face.

"Every time I close my eyes, I can hear her. I can see her. She's always there…the whispers, the meaningless words, her laugh, those eyes, that smile... She just won't fucking leave!" He slammed his fist down on the table.

"I wake up every night fucking screaming with those…pictures flashing in front of my eyes. I can hear myself echo in the room. God, it's like a fucking curse. You can't be with a cursed man. You don't need a guy where all he sees is blood and limbs and hears the cries of dying people and himself laughing his head off. You don't need a guy who will fucking wake you up every dam night screaming and punching some fucking shit that don't even exist! Go and find some guy like Chickenwuss or someone whose only worry is 'Oh no! They've ran out of hotdogs!' or some shit like that. He'll know what to do."

Seifer halted his rage, trying to calm himself and suppress the rising images in his head. After all this time, the guilt still remained with him. People forgive, but they don't ever forget. He didn't; he couldn't let himself forget. He was so trapped and possessed by the supposed "glory" of his cause that it had felt "right." Even if he was being controlled, there had to be weaknesses of desire for power, control, and greed inside of him that Ultimecia could use and manipulate. In the end, he was only a pawn – a weak, careless, brainless asshole who succumbed to the calls of evil sirens.

He couldn't let Ceri be with a person like that. He couldn't ruin her life the way he torn his own life apart. She deserved a righteous man who had everything pieced together for him to give her a strong home and happy children.

The two of them had went too far already. Now, he had to do damage control and make her leave before, one day, she finally realized that Seifer Almasy was too broken and impotent to be with her. Ceri was probably with him now because of pity, and he did not need or want pity. She could not possibly care for him.

She could not possibly _love_ him – a word that he still refused to use when she was involved. The word held too much, and it was something that no sane person would ever want to give him. He probably couldn't even provide that for her now, but she didn't need to wait for a lost cause to turn around. She deserved more. If she left now, she could find the man she called "soul-mate" the next day.

He _cared_ for her; he knew that much. He needed her to be okay. That was one thing Seifer was certain of.

While he was battling himself and silently repeating his justifications, Ceri took small steps in his direction. She reached out for him again.

"Why the hell are you still here, Summers? What the fuck do I have to do to make you understand!? Leave me the fuck alone!" he yelled at her face and shoved her away.

"You listen to me here, Seifer Ryder Almasy! You can yell, scream, punch, or do whatever the hell you want, but I love you and you can't get rid of me. But, if you punched me, know that I will kick your ass." She pointed her finger at him and cut him off as she caught his movement to interrupt her again.

"And, just who the hell do you think you are to tell me what I can do and what I can't do? I will leave this place whenever I want, and I will stay here until I am satisfied when you finally get your head out of your ass. I know that I will probably never understand what you've went through, but I was there. I've seen what happened. You may be a murderer, but you were no less of a murderer than the SeeDs. It's always about whose side you were on. I am not trying to justify your actions, but we were in a war. The lines between good and bad become ambiguous. Don't, Seifer. You've had your turn," Ceri said with a wave of her hand and continued.

"I am not trying to force you to put your past down right now or even erase it; God knows that's impossible. But, I want you to know that I am not going to run away. I don't care how long it takes or if it will ever go away, I just want you to know that I want to be there to do whatever it is to make it at least a little better. We all have a past, but it's the future that we need to build. We can't just give that up…" she trailed off and held his hand in her considerably smaller ones.

"But what you need – "

"I know what I need, Seifer. Just try to trust me for once. Let me try. It'll be okay. It's not like we haven't been through anything together."

The perplexity showed on his face, but as he looked down to their joined hands and fought for another few moments with himself, he let out a long sigh. "Are you sure? You know that I'll probably crush you or do something terrible shit like that."

"I think I can handle it," Ceri said, letting out the first small genuine smile that day. "You really should stop doing this to yourself though. It can't possibly be good for your health."

"Damn woman, don't you think I try?"

She let out a light chuckle and replied, "You just have to keep remembering and know that nothing between us is ever going to change."

He pulled her into his arms and rested his head on top of hers, letting the solace of her quiet comfort sink in.

"…My middle name isn't 'Ryder'," he muttered suspiciously.

"I know that – it's 'Stupid'," Ceri answered firmly.

He let out a sound of protest and held her a little further away from his body. "Hey!"

"Now, before you say anything else, I'm going to tell you this again. I don't want Zell or Nida or anyone else along those lines in this Garden. Don't be stupid, even if that's who you are. You can't get rid of me that easily. I'm never going to believe that you want me to leave unless one day you either tell me that you're in love with another woman or. No. Wait. Scratch that. Unless you tell me that you've finally discovered that your true love is actually Squall, and he liked you back, and you want to adopt lots of babies together. I am not going to leave you."

Seifer looked at her in horror and let go of her completely. "What?? I can't believe you fucking said that! That is disgusting! Me and Puberty Boy? BABIES? No way, that is just….shit! I think my lunch is coming back up!"

She laughed heartily at his dismay and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Aww, don't worry, Seifer. I'll never let Squall steal you away from me. That and Rinoa might kill you, and we can't have that now, can we?"

He made a face and turned away from her. "Like she could…where the hell do you get these stupid ideas anyways?"

"Guess I'm turning more into you, aren't I? Isn't it nice that I can actually understand a little bit of that idiot of yours?"

Seifer was ready to protest again, but Ceri was faster. She pulled his head down and touched his lips with a long promising kiss, successfully erasing all the vexing thoughts from his mind.

* * *

"When a partner is attacking you or making you _feel unloved_, instead of yelling back, soothe yourself and give your partner the calm needed. We need that connection, that praise, the understanding; we need to have someone who is going to be there and not run. _That's _how you break someone's pattern." – _Psychology Today, March/April 2009_


End file.
